ASK ME ANOTHER !

That was the title of a Quiz Programme I used to follow, years ago, on the BBC. But I think that it is a fitting title for next Sunday Gospel, (33^rd Sunday). It certainly reminds me of it. The reason I say this is simple, how many have tried, and many are still striving to get a guess at the date fixed for the end of the world. Many a ‘sect’ have had to change their guess for over four times, so far. I am dead sure that they will never hit the jackpot.

Who can tell? It would be preposterous to try and guess the ‘when’. Jesus Himself, says that he does not know the day or the hour when He will come again. There were things which even He left, without questioning, in the hands of God. There can be no greater warning, and rebuke, to those who try to work out dates and timetables as when He will come again. No mathematical formulae, no juggling with numbers taken from the Book of Revelations, and fed into a computer, can ever give a correct answer.

This is nothing less than blasphemy, for anyone, to enquire into that which our Lord Himself consented that He does not know of, only the Father knows. Jesus drew a practical conclusion. We are like men who know that our Master will definitely come, but the ‘when’, no one knows. We live in the shadow of eternity. This does not mean that there should be any fearful or hysterical expectation. It simply makes us realise that we should do our daily task, duty on a day by day basis with genuine interest and responsibility. In this way we are always in a position to meet Him, face to face. Thus every single moment becomes a preparation to meet the Master, the Lord, the Judge, the Father.

Though this is a difficult text, but it has a permanent Truth. We learn from this  that only the ‘man of God’ can see into the secrets of history. Jesus saw the fate of Jerusalem although the Jews were blind to it. A real statesman “must be a man of God” To guide his country a man must be himself God guided. Only the man who accepts God’s Plans can walk and follow His Plans.

He who abandons God and is immersed in worldly things, in power and honour is most foolish, and will ultimately find himself in the company of the foolish virgins of the parable. The wise man is always ‘on the watch’ always waiting for the moment to be summoned when the ‘call’ comes, and the end will be eternal joy.